The Age of the Maccabees (Illustrated) (9 page)

The Sadducees never
ceased to contrast Antipater as an outsider with the Maccabean family, and the
glories won for the nation by its earlier members. The Pharisees resented his
slighting treatment of the Sanhedrin, and of their tenets generally. They
sought to attack him through his sons Herod and Phasael, whom he had made
governors respectively of Galilee and Jerusalem. The former (the future “Herod
the Great”), a clever and ambitious youth, aged probably twenty-five at this
time, had already done good service in his northern province by exterminating
the bandits who had invested that region. His enemies at Jerusalem took
advantage of his executing one of these miscreants to induce the weak Hyrcanus
to summon him before the Sanhedrin, to whom at that time was reserved the power
of life and death. Herod came, but overawed the assembly by his showy
appearance and armed retinue. Hyrcanus ex officio presided. The names of two
others of the judges are preserved, Shemaiah and Abtalion, famous among Rabbis.
The following utterances of theirs are preserved in The Sayings of the Jewish
Fathers: “Shemaiahsaid, Love work; and hate lordship; and make not thyself
known to the government. Abtalionsaid, Ye wise, be guarded in your words;
perchance ye may incur the debt of exile, and be exiled to the place of evil
waters; and the disciples that come after you may drink and die, and the Name
of Heaven be profaned”.

Although among the most
renowned Jewish scholars of their day, their wisdom was scarcely of so
practical a character as to add strength to the tribunal, which seems to have
been in considerable awe of the accused. When there appeared an imminent danger
that the authority of the court would be openly defied, Hyrcanus adjourned the
trial, the accused withdrew, and in place of holding himself in readiness to
obey any further summons, marched with hostile intent against Hyrcanus. He was
with difficulty persuaded by his brother Phasael and by Antipater to relinquish
his warlike purpose, and return to Galilee.

After a short-lived
recovery of power in Syria by the party of Pompey, Cesar’s assassination (March
15, 44 BC) gave Antony the leadership. Cassius, whom Cesar had appointed
proconsul of Syria, proceeded to that province, after assisting in the murder
of his chief. He levied seven hundred talents upon Palestine, by way of
contribution to war expenses, and in default of prompt payment of this heavy
exaction, seized and sold as slaves the inhabitants of several Jewish towns.
Herod, who fortunately for himself was able to pay the 100 talents which were
his share of the impost, was made procurator of Coele-Syria.

Antipater’s position
had at this time become insecure through the rising power of one namedMalichus,
as to whose origin little or nothing is known. Through bribery he procured
Antipater’s death by poison at a feast given by Hyrcanus (43 BC). Herod
obtained permission from Cassius to avenge his father’s murder, and availed
himself of it by means of hired assassins.

After the defeat at
Philippi (42 BC), Cassius committed suicide. Turbulent times followed in
Palestine. Roman troops had been withdrawn to supply the needs of those
contending for the rule of the Empire. It is clear that the Jews as a whole had
by no means even now accepted the Idumean sway. Phasael had to put down an
insurrection in Jerusalem, while Antigonus made an abortive effort to recover
the kingdom for the Maccabean family, and though worsted by Herod in an
encounter on the borders of Judea, and driven from the country, yet he managed
for a while to retain some hold upon the northern part of Palestine.

The same spirit was
shown, though in more peaceable fashion, by the repeated complaints made
against the sons of Antipater by representatives of the upper classes before
Antony, who was for the time master of the eastern part of the Roman world. He
refused to act upon their wishes, confirmed Phasael and Herod in their
position, and proceeded to lay a severe impost upon Palestine as upon other
provinces, in order to defray the expenses alike of his warlike operations and
his luxury.

A Parthian invasion of
Syria was made use of by Antigonus as affording him another opportunity of
recovering his hereditary rights. He was already established within Jerusalem,
and his followers engaged in street encounters with those of his opponents,
when the Parthians, appearing before the walls, invited Phasael and Hyrcanus to
go out to the camp of Barzaphanes, the satrap in command, for the purpose of
arranging terms. They fell into the snare, and were at once thrown into prison.
Phasael there committed suicide. Hyrcanus’s ears had been cut off by the
direction or the act of Antigonus, in order that on account of this mutilation
there might under no circumstances be a resumption of his position as high
priest; and he was thereupon led by the Parthians into exile. Herod meanwhile
had succeeded in making his escape from Jerusalem, and after various wanderings
reached Rome.

This probably was the
most critical period of his eventful life. But fortune speedily smiled on his
ambition. The triumvirs, Antony and Octavian, who had just been forced by the
legions, weary of fighting, to patch up a reconciliation, united to do honor to
the fugitive. At their motion the Senate (40 BC) nominated him king of Judea.
He did not hesitate to offer sacrifice after the manner of the pagan ritual on
entering upon office. Thus within a week of his arrival the exile found himself
with a crown upon his head, and the power of Rome at his back. So far his task
was an easy one. He now had to seek to add to the name the reality of power.

The Parthians (40 BC)
had allowed Antigonus to call himself both king and high priest. His position,
however, was a precarious one. He bought off for the moment the hostility of
the representative of Rome in Syria, P. Ventidius, but failed to create any
enthusiastic following for himself in his kingdom. Herod, on the other hand,
though received with some support, found that the general attitude both towards
him and his rival was one of indifference. This was the case even on the part
of the Roman troops, who were in the pay of Antigonus for the purpose. Herod at
first devoted himself to the difficult task of subduing the bandits who still
infested Galilee; but it was not till he had had an interview with Antony, at
Samosata, and thereby had obtained more active support from this all-powerful
source, that he was able to prosecute with effect his purposes against
Antigonus, in whose favor Galilee had declared. Now, however, after a rapid and
success¬ful progress through the country parts, he laid siege to Jerusalem (37
BC). During the time while engines of attack were in course of erection, he
celebrated his marriage withMariamne. She was his second wife, a grand-daughter
of Aristobulus II, and thus a descendant in the fourth generation of John
Hyrcanus. It is probable that he intended by this union of the rival
families—his own and that of the Maccabees—to render the position which he now
claimed more acceptable to the people at large.

After a little more
than eight weeks Herod, with the help of the Roman general, Sosius, captured
the city. Pillage and slaughter followed. It was only by lavish gifts that
Herod succeeded in dismissing the Romans from Jerusalem, and persuading them to
leave the country. Antigonus pleaded for mercy at the feet of Sosius, who
spurned him, calling him Antigone. He took him to Antioch, where Antony soon
after caused him to be beheaded. Herod could now contemplate the final ruins of
the Maccabean dynasty. After a three years’ struggle he had entered upon his kingdom
with the full support of the arbiters of the world.